Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Rays Sweep Their Way to 30th Win

Rays 5,Orioles 4

I have to say, after last night’s Commodore s’ concert, and the excitement of today’s “walk-off” win, I have to take the rest of the day off to just get ready for the next 7 days of Rays baseball.

It is a great time to be a true Rays fan. A .600 winning percentage, and a offense that gets better every day.

Carlos Pena has now reached base in 8 straight at-bats. He walked three times today and hit his 10th homer in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Carlos went 1-2 today, with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.

In reality, Carlos came to play today and the ball was as big as basketballs to him. His homer to left center was not in doubt a few seconds after he hit it. For the season, Carlos is now in a three way tie for third in homers, and is sitting in 38th in RBI’s with teammate Carl Crawford.

Honorable Mention “Good Guys”:

*** Rays Catcher Dioner Navarro went 2-4 today and lifted his average to .355 for the season. Dioner is the leader in switch hitters in the majors right now. Dioner was also instrumential in Gabe Gross’s outfield assist today taking the relay ans throwing to second to get the Orioles Ramon Hernandez at second base.

** Rays outfielder B J Upton is again alive with his bat and is currently hitting .303 for the season. B J is making outstanding plays in the field, and running the bases better for the team. He had his 3rd career 4-hit game last night. B J reached base all 5 times he batted last night, and his .303 average is ranked 9th in the AL.

* Usually, when you hit a game winning double in walk-off fashion, I would list you as the top player of the day. But, Evan Longoria is already in a class by himself this year. He went 2-5 today to up his average to .246.

In the bottom of the 9th, after Carlos Pena walked, Evan hit a sscreamer into the right centerfield gap and stopped at second. Not that he was out of gas, or tired in the least. It had just hit him that in less than 40 games, he is being put in the same breath as veterans like Carl Crawford, B J Upton, and Carlos Pena. High praise for the guy leading all Roiokies in homers and RBI’s.

But then again, we were told he was special in the Spring.

The Bad

I have been notcing a trend again in Aki Iwamura’s batting swings and hits. He is again hitting the ball more airborne and is taking away that grounder or line drive that was his signature during his hitting streak.

It might just be an adjustment, or a action that is not visible to Aki, but we see it out in the stands.

Another bad I have to address is the fact that we again left 11 guys standing on the bases in scoring position. We have been lucky to have won most of those games, but we got lucky that Daniel Caberra was not on his control and strikeout binge today.

The Ugly

Aki was the only Ray not to get at least a hit today. His average is sitting at .262, down the beginning of the week. As I mentioned before, Aki is leaning back a bit and lofting the ball instead of driving the ball through the hitting zone.

I also saw something amazing considering Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez could not seem to get anyone out stealing the last two nights.

He threw a bullet to nail Carl Crawford for his 4th caught stealing attempt today. The throws in earlier situations were high and almost in centerfield. This throw was on the money and Carl was dead to rights out by a good margin.

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